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Friday, March 7, 2014

#944: Johanna Michaelsen

Johanna Michaelsen is (or was) one of the movers and shakers
behind the Satanic panic trend that was all the rage among parents, fundies and the delusional in the 80s and early
90s. Indeed, the “former Satanists” who achieved something resembling
superstardom in certain religious communities, in particular Lauren Stratford,
could hardly have got there without Michaelsen. Michaelsen was herself a former
New Ager who, after being reborn, devoted her life to fight all things New Age
and all “non-traditional religions,” for all the wrong reasons, and she seems
to have cared not one whit about the (utter lack of) plausibility or
corroboration with regard to her “ex-Satanist” clients.

Michaelsen has in fact spread a fair share of paranoid
bullshit herself about the paranormal, New Age silliness and Halloween herself.
She has claimed that school shootings should be blamed on teenagers toying with
the occult and rock music (blaming in particular Rammstein for the Columbine massacre),
and warned that Satanists are grooming our children for a reign of terror in
the immediate future by brainwashing them with Halloween. Her book Like Lambs to the Slaughter is hence a
guide for parents, telling them how to prevent the occult from encroaching on
their children’s souls, such as warning against letting kids watch The Smurfs.
John Beardsley of rapidnet.com liked it,
but was critical of Michaelsen’s sometimes acceptance of terminology from
psychology and psychiatry, which in Beardsley’s view is unbiblical. You can
read a longer expose of Michaelsen and her antics here.

As mentioned, Michaelsen never really rejected her previous
New Age beliefs; indeed, she explicitly still claims the stuff she professed
early on were correct, only that she had been deceived by Satan into thinking
them innocent or even angelic rather than demonic. The stuff in question
includes occult practices such as yoga and meditation, as well as influencing
others through psi and summoning Jesus and other dead people during sessions.

Michaelsen was a close associate of Hal Lindsey – indeed, Johanna’s younger sister Kim was Hal Lindsey’s third wife. Johanna
herself was married to Randolph (Randy) Michaelsen, currently pastor of King’s
Harbor Church in Torrance. Lindsey even wrote the foreword for Johanna’s first
book, The Beautiful Side of Evil,
which “documented” her “occult” experiences and subsequent lapse into
fundamentalist Christianity. Due to her background and connections, she was
thus well poised to launch her significant contribution to the Satanic panic by
mentoring Lauren Stratford. Michaelsen lost some of her clout when she fell out
with Lindsey in the early 90s. Stratford, on her side, and after her story was
exposed as fake, went on to change her name and start a new career as a fake holocaust survivor.
It didn’t really end very well for her.

Diagnosis: Utterly, unhingedly, raving mad. And,
exasperatingly, she has demonstrably had a bit of influence. Should make you
weep for mankind or something.

There's no such thing as "freedom of speech" for the commenters on this blog. So typical of coward bloggers that sit behind their computers and contribute no real value to the world. #fake #incognitoCoward